STDs – no not that kind
January 28th, 2012 by
BrianneDonahue
We are just about nine months out from our wedding and slowly but surely knocking things off of our to-do list. We booked our photographer last weekend (more on her later, but I am in love!) and the next thing I would like to tackle is our Save the Dates (aka STDs!). I know not everyone sends out STDs, but as my fiancé’s family lives in the Midwest and my family is on the East Coast, they are an absolute must for us. We want to give our guests plenty of time to plan for a trip out to San Francisco, especially since this will be the first trip out to CA for many of them.
Now here’s the tough part – choosing an STD. Man, it is hard! There are just too many beautiful options out there. I do love STDs that feature the couple (and of course the engagement pictures that you likely paid a pretty penny for).
But, I would really like to get ours mailed out sooner rather than later and I am not sure how quickly we can turn a photo shoot around along with creating the actual STD.
So currently I am leaning toward STDs that highlight San Francisco. As I mentioned, we are inviting a LOT of out-of-towners to our wedding. And we want the city of San Francisco to shine right alongside us on our big day. We hope that all of our guests fall in love with this city as much as we have and utilize our wedding as an excuse to visit one of the best places in the world (can you tell I like this city?).
I especially love ones that have a more vintage feel.
And how cute is this STD that highlights the BART System (that’s Bay Area Rapid Transit for you non-locals).
Oh and I am leaning toward postcards. I like that they emphasize the travel theme (and who’s kidding who, let’s save a dollar where we can!).
I would love to know your thoughts on the above. Did you send out a Save the Date?
January 28, 2012 at 5:51 am, Christina said:
I had to laugh when I saw your headline…I always felt funny abbreviating them too ;)
I sent STDs about 1 month after getting engaged…talk about a quick turn around time! But 50-60% of our guests are coming from out of state and out of the country so we felt it was a must as well.
We didn’t have time for an engagement shoot so we had a family friend with a good camera take some pics of us. We then used Magnet Street to create magnets. We were pretty happy with how they turned out, especially with so little time available to create them. I posted about it on my personal blog :)
Ps; I love the San Fran ones, especially the “a wedding awaits you in San Francisco” one :)
January 28, 2012 at 6:29 am, Keri said:
LOVE the post card look! We did send STDs and I couldn’t decide between two so we went with them both. One of them was a postcard and it was a HUGE hit. The only thing is, when I ordered them they came with envelopes so I wasn’t sure if I should send them just as a regular post card would be sent and address them right on the save the date or put them in the envelopes…I ended up using the envelopes to protect the card because they were so cute, I didn’t want them ruined in the mail…
GOOD LUCK!
January 28, 2012 at 8:36 am, Veronica said:
I like the cable car and golden gate bridge ones, you can always make a guest book or slideshow to showcase engagement pics :)
January 29, 2012 at 8:01 am, Jackie said:
I’m doing a September destination wedding in Estes Park, CO and we just sent our STD’s out a couple weeks ago. Same reasons as you, I wanted people to have plenty of time to plan the trip out here. I to wanted to incorporate our engagement photos and the Rocky Mountains, and my graphic designer did an amazing job of incorporating those things, along with the rustic, lodge feel of our wedding. We also did a postcard and I’m SO glad I did that. It saved money on postage and envelopes, and I had my friend with really nice handwriting address them in a pen/marker that really matched the feel of the STD’s. Just a warning though, luckily I sent mine out before the postage increase and now the stamps are SO cheesy!! They are hawaiian shirts that say ‘aloha’. But nobody will notice, I’m sure :) They were cuter when I sent mine, luckily. I love your examples that incorporate San Francisco. You can totally find a way to do that and use your photos, I sure did (photo and monogram on the front, rustic, rocky mountain imagery on the back)! Good luck!
January 30, 2012 at 8:50 am, Monica said:
Love the vintage postcards!
January 30, 2012 at 8:58 am, Brianne said:
@Christina – Thank you! And the one you like is the one we are leaning toward!
@Keri – I never thought of using two options! Might have to put some thought into that.
@Veronica – me too :)
@Jackie – Hmm. Good point – wonder if the designer can do that. I will check!
@Monica – Thanks! You have a great eye :)
January 30, 2012 at 9:28 am, Carrie S said:
I love the cable car and Golden Gate bridge ones. They’re so cute and vintage!
January 30, 2012 at 1:33 pm, Sarah said:
I am having a destination reception in Hawaii so I wanted to make sure to send Save the Dates pretty far in advance. I loved the idea of the postcard too. I just scanned an amazing retro Hawaiian Print and then designed the back to look like a postcard back. ( I’m a graphic designer but I am sure there are tons of templates if you are not familiar with design software. The end result was an amazingly cute save the date postcard that I got printed through vista print ( but you could use any of those large online printers). I loved the STD and it ended up costing less than $50 for over 100. If you want to see the results I have the STD on my coroflot portfolio http://www.coroflot.com/sarahm120 under the wedding section.
January 30, 2012 at 3:56 pm, Alyssa said:
I love the small STD’s with a magnet already attached so you can post it on the fridge :)
February 02, 2012 at 2:02 pm, chrissy said:
I actually love them all, so you definitely cannot go wrong! But I think I am also leaning towards the trolley and Golden Gate Bridge STDs! I cannot wait to get mine in the mail!